Formula for Quick Service Success: SHAQ

If yours is a quick-service restaurant churning guests through a cookie-cutter experience, you can’t expect to survive, let alone thrive. Forget being 1% better at 100 things — it’s time to step out. Be unique, be great and be different. Period.

Your guests today need more than “G.E.D. Service” — Greet, Eat, Delete. To out-serve the competition you must out-train them. Crush the quick-service competition by providing the service experience that can’t be found anywhere else. Own your guests by creating loyalty. Guests are more selective and demanding than ever before. Satisfaction does not drive sales. Shooting for “satisfied” will spell demise. To thrive, restaurants have to aim higher.

The formula is easy — execution each and every day is not. The success formula for quick-service restaurants is simple to remember: S.H.A.Q.

Speed. Guests want it quick — that’s why they’re dining with, or ordering from, your restaurant. They have a need for speed, but not at the expense of other components. Anyone can provide food faster for speed’s sake but today’s guests demand more.

Hospitality. Not only is it what you say, it’s how you say it. Hospitality screams: “We care!” It drives loyalty and frequency. It builds sales by eliminating the competition from guests’ minds. It’s the emotional attachment you make with guests.

Accuracy. Deliver what guests want to buy, not what the company wants to sell. Guests are demanding and special requests have become the norm. Vegetarian, low carb, no sauce and make it right now!